It is currently the practice with various brass articles such as faucets, faucet escutcheons, door knobs, door handles, door escutcheons and the like to first buff and polish the surface of the article to a high gloss and to then apply a protective organic coating, such as one comprised of acrylics, urethanes, epoxies and the like, onto this polished surface. This system has the drawback that the buffing and polishing operation, particularly if the article is of a complex shape, is labor intensive. Also, the known organic coatings are not always as durable as desired, and are susceptible to attack by acids. It would, therefore, be quite advantageous if brass articles, or indeed other articles, either plastic, ceramic, or metallic, could be provided with coating which provided the article with a decorative appearance as well as providing wear resistance, abrasion resistance and corrosion resistance. It is known in the art that a multi-layered coating can be applied to an article which provides a decorative appearance as well as providing wear resistance, abrasion resistance and corrosion resistance. This multi-layer coating includes a decorative and protective color layer of a refractory metal nitride such as a zirconium nitride or a titanium nitride. This color layer, when it is zirconium nitride, provides a brass color, and when it is titanium nitride provides a gold color.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,922,478; 6,033,790 and 5,654,108, inter alia, describe a coating which provides an article with a decorative color, such as polished brass, provides wear resistance, abrasion resistance and corrosion resistance. It would be very advantageous if a coating could be provided which provided substantially the same properties as the coatings containing zirconium nitride or titanium nitride but instead of being brass colored or gold colored was bronze, particularly antique bronze, colored. The present invention provides such a coating.